


It's Charlie Slime Against the Dream SMP

by naomi_m03



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Enderman Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Manipulative Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Memory Loss, Prisoner Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Slime Hybrid Charlie Dalgleish, Swearing, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-26 21:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30112023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naomi_m03/pseuds/naomi_m03
Summary: Dream knows Charlie's secret, and Charlie's willing to do anything to keep people from knowing about it. Unfortunately, we all know what Dream's about, and he's ready to use that knowledge to his advantage.First time using ao3 or writing dream SMP fanfiction, tell me if I get anything wrong. Also, I'm pretending canon does not exist. Takes place after Tommy's March 4th stream, anything streamed afterward has not happened in the fic. Additionally, this is Charlie slime centric since we never got the lore we deserved.
Relationships: Charlie Dalgleish & Ranboo, Charlie Dalgleish & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Charlie Dalgleish & TommyInnit
Comments: 22
Kudos: 104





	1. 1.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This will be mainly Charlie-centric, but there will be sub-plots about Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo. Please leave constructive criticism, or point out any mistakes you notice. I'm always looking to improve.
> 
> If any of the content creators mentioned in this are uncomfy with it, I will take it down immediately. I'm here for charlie lore, not trying to upset anyone. Enjoy!

“Mmm,” Charlie hummed, rummaging through the chests in his snowchester home, ignoring the way his fingertips pulse with power. “I’m sure.”

“No, I know it sounds crazy but-“ Tubbo was pacing throughout his home, turning on his heel right before crashing into a wall. He wrung his hands. “I-Dream hasn’t lied before-“

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Charlie closed the chest, dropping the facade of pretending to do something important. “Seriously? Dream’s probably lied a bunch. I’ve never talked to the guy but like, I’ve lived here for about 3 months now. Almost 4. Word travels.” He glances at the floor, he really can’t keep this up for long if Tubbo keeps pushing. The man is persistent, he’ll give him that.

“Well, he hasn’t lied about stuff this big,” Tubbo’s talking picks up speed when Charlie tries interjecting, “I mean, why would he lie? There’s no—he gains nothing from lying about this. I can't believe he’s even acknowledging there’s someone on the server more powerful than him in the first place.”

Charlie turns back to his chests, pretending to organize them. He’s not particularly good at lying when he looks at someone and they can read his face. Unfortunately, he has many tells. Instead, he goes with the strat that completely ignores the God-talk. “Why were you visiting him in the prison again?”

“I just wanted to know what happened to Tommy.” Tubbo stops walking around for a bit, his thoughts seemingly slowing down. “I mean, he’s been revived but he’s not-he’s not Tommy. He’s changed. Ranboo agrees. Dream agrees.” Tubbo shivers.

“Yeah, and Dream brings up Godhood randomly? Awfully suspicious.”

“It had context-“ Tubbo starts and stops. He glances at the clock on the wall. “Mmm, sorry, I really need to get going. Ranboo and I are going on our first date,” He wiggles his eyebrows.

“Aren’t you guys married? Shouldn’t you have gone on plenty of dates before?” Charlie jumps on the topic switch.

“Ranboo, my beloved,” Is all Tubbo replies before going to the door. “Thanks for indulging me, Slime. I know we don’t talk much, but it’s nice getting an outsider's perspective who doesn’t have a lot of tunnel vision like me and Tommy.” He thinks for a second, “And Ranboo. And everyone on this godforsaken server.” He turns to look at Charlie a final time. “Out of everyone on here, you’re pretty normal for someone who’s part slime.”

Charlie laughs for the pure amount of irony in that sentence, but Tubbo probably thinks he’s just laughing at the joke he made. “Yeah, I’m a gamer guy,” He says, and nods as Tubbo leaves.

Charlie knows he’ll have to visit Dream soon to find out what he knows. He’s not looking forward to it.

~*~

“This date is starting to seem a lot less like a date and more like a conspiracy theory convention,” Ranboo jokes. Tubbo glares at him.

He knows that he’s making a big deal out of some offhand comment Dream had made when he visited him, but it is a big deal. A God? On the server? He knew that Dream considered himself to be one of the immortal kind, despite only having one life, but that didn’t really count in terms of literal deities.

“But think about it! Think about what they could do for us--or against us,“ Tubbo stops for a second and stares at the strawberries split between the two of them. “They could be dangerous to the server. They could also be an extremely useful asset to the server. We just don’t know!”

“Tubbo,” Ranboo grabbed his shoulders. “I am being completely honest with you when I say that Dream was probably lying. It was a joke-“ Tubbo laughs at the idea that Dream could be capable of such a thing. “-or some weird comment he made before thinking about it. Think about this rationally. A God? On the server? Acting like a normal player? Doing menial tasks instead of- I don’t know- God duties?”

Tubbo sighed. “Yeah, yeah you’re right.” He dragged a hand down his face. “Charlie said the same thing.”

“Charlie knows what he’s talking about,” Ranboo says and takes a bite out of one of the strawberries Tubbo was twirling between his index finger and thumb, but then pauses, and laughs. “Hold on a second—since when do you go to Charlie out of all people to spew your random theories to?”

“Shut up,” Tubbo said, and shoved him. “He was the only one around,” Which is true. Out of all people, he didn’t really want to talk to the newbie of the server, but he couldn’t wait until his date to talk about it. Charlie was cool and all, but they weren’t the best of friends. Plus, he seemed generally disinterested in the topic. Who could be bored talking about the possibility of Gods, Tubbo wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. He got most of his rambling out of his system just so he could talk about the Cold Hard Facts with Ranboo. And the Cold Hard Facts were as follows: Dream was talking about how he was pretty much a God and mentioned how he wished he could meet the actual god just chilling on the server to shove it in his face. Thinking back on it now, it seemed like more of a rub in the face of the overruling deity, DreamXD, and Tubbo misinterpreted it.

“Well now that we got the theories out of our system, how about you give me a hug and we call it a night?”

“What? Already?”

Ranboo pointed to the sun setting on the horizon, “I’m pretty sure I don’t want our date to get infested with mobs.”

Tubbo pouted and sighed, “I didn’t even get a chance to talk about something other than my stupid theory!” He crossed his arms.

“It wasn’t stupid,” Ranboo paused, “I just think you blew it out of proportion.” Tubbo stares and him and Ranboo laughs, putting his hands up in mock defense. “I get the whole ‘holy shit there’s a literal God on the server’ type beat we got going on here, but you just need to check yourself when you think about it. May I reiterate the fact that a god would probably not just stroll around the Dream SMP without reason? Dream was probably just referring to DreamXD, who may or may not exist.”

Tubbo nods, slowly, and gets up. “Well, sorry for ruining our first date.” Ranboo opens his mouth and Tubbo plants his finger on his lips in a shushing motion. “But it will be better next time, I promise. Can you look after Michael tonight? I want to check on Tommy…” He trails off, knowing he doesn’t need to explain himself. 

Ranboo stands as well, dusting off the grass that got on his pant legs. “Sure. Tell me how it goes with Tommy afterwards.”

They exchange farewells and Tubbo heads to Tommy’s dirt shack thing he had, picking up the pace. He didn’t want to get out his sword and have to battle mobs just to meet up with one of his best friends, and he also didn’t want to keep Tommy waiting. Not that Tommy knew he was coming, but it was more of a personal timeline. He knew Sam had been taking care of Tommy ever since he found out that Tommy had been revived even though the man seemed to be a bit miffed that he hadn’t taken him out of the prison sooner. Tubbo found it reasonable, which is why he stopped by lots to break up the constant this-man-didn’t-save-me-in-time mindframe. 

He stopped in his tracks when he noticed a figure walking the path, which was very much normal, but it was obvious they were lost. “Hey!” He called and the figure turned to look at him. It was Slimecicle. Tubbo ran up to him, “What’s up?”

Charlie smiled, “I’m in a bit of a sticky situation here,” Tubbo cringed at the awful pun, “I was trying to find the--what was it?” He paused for a second. “I think it was the L’manburg museum. Yeah, I was trying to find that.”

Tubbo smiled, “Uh, sorry, but you’re going the complete opposite direction of it,” And Slime cringed. “Why’re you interested?”

Slime thought for a second, as if coming up with an excuse. “I wanna learn more about the history of it. Before the whole-” He made a blowing up gesture with his hands and a kaboom noise. “-thing. Like, uh, you know Jschlatt?”

This time Tubbo was the one to cringe. He could only remember the harsh punishments and anxiety ridden life of those days. “Yeah…” Tubbo started. He wondered why Charlie was interested. From his knowledge, the man had never met Schlatt. “I was actually on my way to Tommy’s, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh yeah, yeah, sure,” Charlie nodded. He scratched his chin. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to mind if I came with you, would’ya?”

Tubbo really didn’t want to let him come. It was one thing to have a friendly rant about the resident criminal, it was another to let a man he barely knew to a somewhat intimate moment between him and Tommy. But who was he to decline? “Uh, no. Come on.” He regretted it almost instantly.

They walked for a bit in silence, Tubbo silently watching the man toss a slime creature between his hands like a bouncy ball, until Charlie spoke. “What was Schlatt like?”

Tubbo shuddered, “Harsh.”

Charlie seems to ponder that for a second and then nods. “Yeah, that seems like him.”

Tubbo turned a questioning glance at the slimy man. “You knew him?”

“Oh yeah, he and I-” Slime cuts himself short. “He and I were uh, somewhat close. Like in a rivalry way. It was a super long time ago-I can barely remember.”

“Oh,” Tubbo didn’t know what to think of that. The pun man of the server knew and was close to one of the worst people to have ever graced Tubbo’s presence? “I’m sorry he’s gone now.” He wasn’t, not really. Schlatt had kind of deserved it in a twisted way, but who was he to decide if Charlie was allowed to mourn? Despite the two of them being total opposites, he wasn’t one to rain on their friendship parade.

Charlie shook his head, “Nah, it’s fine. Last time we ‘talked’-” Tubbo noted the air quotes. “-it was not in a friendly manner. I’m glad you guys don’t have to deal with him anymore.”

Tubbo nodded and they walked the rest of the way in silence.


	2. 2.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clingy duo is back bb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter could be considered boring, and I apologize for that, but, I also figured out how to use italics! Woo! Pretty cool, yeah? Why is ao3 so hard to use??

Tommy was stretched out completely on his bed, stomach facing the bed. He could hear footsteps approach him.

“You know that laying like that is bad for you, right?” Sam asks.

Tommy groans, pushing the palms of his hands into his eyes, “ _Yes_ , Sam, yes I know. You’ve only told me 3 million times since coming over.”

Out of the corner of his vision he sees the way Sam looks at him--the sad way. It’s always the sad way. Well, he could take his puppy dog glances to Tubbo or something, he lost the privilege of being upset when he refused to let Tommy out of the prison--resulting in his _death_. 

“Tommy-” Sam starts, but there’s a knocking on the shitty door Tommy had crafted in a minute. He was quite proud of the thing actually, but he did admit it was terrible at keeping out the cold air. 

Tommy gets up to open the door before Sam can, and is surprised to see four-eyes standing there, along with Tubbo, of course.

“Hey Big T!” Tommy greets, waving them in. He eyes Slimecicle wearily before letting him in as well, but it was more out of precaution since he barely knew the guy. “So… what brings you to the coolest place on the server?”

“Is _that_ what you’re calling it now?” Tubbo teases, and shoves him a bit. Tommy freezes, flashbacks of Dream’s fists pounding him fresh on his mind as if they had just happened. He shakes off the flashback quickly. He’s been getting better at that--ignoring the flashbacks, the feelings in general, honestly.

“You dare insinuate that my party palace is not the coolest place to exist?” Tommy jokes back, hoping Tubbo, Sam, and Charlie didn’t notice the way he had tensed before. Speaking of which, he turns his gaze to Charlie, just watching the interaction with a guarded look. “No offense big man, and by that I mean take full offense, but why are you here?”

Charlie laughs a bit, “I’m just here to check up on you. I uh, heard what happened. Sorry.” Tommy _highly_ doubts that’s why he’s there. He’s had 3 weeks to check up on Tommy. Not that he was letting anyone else visit him besides his closest friends those first 2 weeks, but the point still stands. 

Tommy lets his eyes roam over Charlie for a second, enjoying the uncomfortable look that flashes over his face, before nodding. “Sure.”

Tubbo and Tommy chat about nothing important, while Sam stares daggers at Charlie. Good, Tommy wasn’t the only one thinking it was strange of him to just show up unexpectedly. Tommy takes a final glance at the two, and finally asks the question he had been dreading. 

“What’d you talk to Dream about at the prison?” Tubbo seems startled, and Tommy rolls his eyes. “I’m not blind, Tubbo. Just because I… don’t leave the house much… doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on on this bloody server. It was practically all anyone could talk about today. ‘What do you think Tubbo’s gonna do to him?’, you know, the standard rumors. Just thought I’d hear about it first hand.”

“First hand…” Tubbo mutters. “Well, I don't really, uh, want to talk about the bad parts of it.” Tommy expected this. He didn’t expect the way Tubbo’s eyes suddenly lit up, though. “Oh! But I did learn one thing, and, and it-”

Charlie sighed and dropped his head into his hands. “Not this again.”

“What do you mean by ‘this’-” Tommy started to ask, but got interrupted by Tubbo practically foaming at the mouth. Tommy knew this face. This was his theory face. This face was never a good face.

“I _mean_ ,” Tubbo continued, “I was talking to Dream, and he said this, like, super out of context thing. We were talking about, uh, how he was just as much of a god as DreamXD was-” Tommy shuddered. He knew the rants well. Very well. “-and anyways, he gets like, worked up about it and he says, ‘I just wish I could shove it in that stupid God’s face who just walks around--like he’s- normal! He isn’t! But I know how much I’m worth. I could totally shove it up his-' and then he said a bunch of curse words.”

Tommy spies Charlie’s face drain of color for some reason, and notes the way he quickly whispers something to Sam. Sam nods, and gets up, “I should get going. You two can handle yourselves, right?”

“Two? What about Charlie?” Tommy asks.

“I’m pretty tuckered out. I think I’m gonna turn in for the night,” Slimecicle explains. Tommy knows this is a lie, he didn’t even look at them when he said it. “Maybe you guys should sleep on the whole god thing. Come to your senses.” Charlie’s awkward grin contrasts the rest of everyone’s neutral faces.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m a big man. I can handle being alone.”

“See you tomorrow, Tommy,” Sam salutes and exits the hut. Charlie follows suit, nodding as he leaves. Tommy notices he left goop on the doorknob. Gross.

Tommy and Tubbo sit in silence for a couple of seconds before Tommy asks, “What’s up with four-eyes?”

Tubbo stares at him with a questioning look. “Four-eyes? Who’s--oh. You mean Charlie.”

“Four-eyes is practically his name at this point,” Tommy counters. The dude literally had two sets of eyes, he swore it, although no one else seemed to notice. 

Tubbo chuckles, “Sure. Even though I’m pretty sure it’s bullying, I’ll let it slide.”

Tommy throws his hands up in mock anger, “It’s not bullying if it’s true, you dickhead! And you didn’t answer my question. Why’d he come if he was only going to stay for a couple minutes?”

“I don’t know,” He shrugged, “He just asked to come.”

“Well, he looked awfully uncomfortable about it,” Tommy says. “It was like he came here just to observe or something.”

“I don’t know what he does with his free time! I’m pretty sure this was the first time we’ve talked in, I don’t know, maybe a month?”

“He needs a hobby besides watching children,” Tommy says pointedly, and then remembers what they were talking about before. “So, what’s this about a God on the server? Besides me, of course,” He laughs at his own joke.

“Oh yeah!” Tubbo says, and excitedly starts his rant about what went down in the cell today. “So after he said that, he just continued as normal. As if he didn’t just drop like a huge bomb on me and Sam. But Sam doesn’t think it’s important. Just another ramble.”

Tommy wasn’t really sure what to think. On the one hand, Dream was extremely delusional and self-absorbed, of _course_ he said something like that. On the other, well, Dream wasn’t one for admitting his control had been ripped away. He was the type of guy who could literally be surrounded by more than 20 people and still thought he could manipulate his way out of it. Tommy knew this from experience. *Cough cough*, January 20th. All this to say, he really wouldn’t admit there was someone who could probably kill him out there, because he most likely didn’t think they existed.

“So who do you think it is?” Tommy asked, shaking his internal monologue from his mind.

“Oh I have no clue,” Tubbo laughed, “I don’t even think I know them, actually.”

“Of anyone on the server though, who would you guess?” Tommy was more just trying to get back into a joking manner. Even though Dream wouldn’t really lie about that sort of thing (well, maybe he was. Somebody who beats a child to death is not totally right in the mind), he couldn’t really fathom the idea of a genuine God.

“Well, I guess I would probably say Dream. Or Techno.”

“See, now I know it’s not Techno because he’s an idiot,” Tommy says. “Although I guess he doesn’t ‘ever die’. I could probably take him though.”

“Tell that to the pit,” Tubbo said. 

“It was rigged,” Tommy grunted, and they dissolved into laughter. Almost just as normal, almost like before L’manburg, before exile, before his final death and revival. At least Tommy could pretend.

~*~

Charlie walked with Sam back home from Tommy’s, and Charlie was pretty sure it wasn’t out of charity. The guy clearly didn’t trust him. Was it something in his teeth? He almost chuckled at the idea. Charlie just wasn’t sure what he did. It was perfectly normal to check up on a kid who had just died 3 weeks prior. Checking up on them was a common courtesy. 

Of course, he hadn’t actually gone to check up on Tommy. That was an added bonus, of course, he still worried about the kid even if he had threatened him with a map of vikkstar for 20 minutes, but no, that was not the main reason he went. He felt like a dick, just going over to see what they knew about Dream, but to be fair, his life was on the line. His finally normal life. He had worked hard for it.

Going to visit Tommy wasn’t completely necessary though. All Tubbo had said was a repeat of what he had told him earlier, except it was an exact quote this time. 

It still gave him shivers, thinking about it. How the _fuck_ had Dream figured out who he was? Charlie was so close to just ignoring it, pretending it was about some other god he had never heard of. And that would work just fine, except for the fact there were literally no other new members. Nobody could go undiscovered this long without being found out.

“So you want to go to the prison?” Sam finally asked. 

“Yeah, to see Dream,” He could slap his face right there. Who else would be in there, Wilbur Soot?

“Why?” Sam asked. He had asked the same thing the moment they had exited Tommy’s dirt shack.

Charlie repeated the same thing he had said then, “Personal business,” He shrugged, trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal.

“What could you possibly have to talk about with the prisoner?”

“I don’t know--” He tried to come up with an excuse that made sense, “--cookies?” Yeah, real great response there, Charlie Slimecicle, “What he does in there all day? I’m not friends with the guy. Maybe I’d just make fun of him for being in jail.”

“Those aren’t great reasons,” Sam pointed out.

“I can tell, Sherlock,” Charlie says, “Look it’s personal. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to.” And while that probably made him even more suspicious, it worked.

“When do you want to go?”

~*~

So _maybe_ , Dream was a little harsh on Tommy. Maybe he shouldn’t have blown up all of his shit. 

Dream paused for a second and thought about his actions, reflecting on them deeply.

...

Yeah, Dream wasn’t convinced of it. Tommy needed to learn. And he ran away? They could’ve rebuilt Logestire together! A bonding experience, or something. 

Whatever. He just needed someone powerful on his side, prime knew Dream XD wasn’t. And he’d get them on his side, willingly or not. He just needed to figure out where to start. 

_Immortal Figures; Volume 1.2_ caught his eye. He picked it up and grinned, not that you could tell from under his mask. 

This could work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I had Dream and Charlie meet in this chapter, but then I remembered pacing exists so I scrapped it. Do not fret! I saved the scene and I'll be using it later, but edited of course, so it fits the moment. 
> 
> Also, don't expect updates daily! I just had these chapters mostly prepared so it didn't take long for me to push them out. Thank you for the kudos and comments! I really appreciate them.
> 
> also also and this is a little bonus for you guys, I have no idea how to write funny pun man. please pity me, this is pain.


	3. 3.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie visits Dream. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized how similar this story is to "hope is the only god left among mankind". I didn't mean for it to be so similar lmao, I promise I'm not just rewriting it but worse. Jokes aside, check it out, it's extremely good and includes charlie puns! I could never.
> 
> Also I wrote a lot of this late at night. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, whatever you spot, please let me know so I can fix it and seem like a super cool and professional fic! One of these days I will get to 1 million kudos and my friends will never have doubted me /j.

Charlie wandered the plains somewhat carefree, still kind of on edge. It was still the world he had created, after all. Him and his friends didn’t exactly make it safe. Gods could still take damage, especially considering the roles they had all taken on. 

He leaned down to pick up a white tulip. Not his favorite flower, but it would be nice to decorate the deserted village they had taken over after realizing that the ‘sonk ponkle’ was literally just a sea pickle. He had yet to get Bizly back for that one.

He flinched and dropped the flower when his communicator buzzed in his pocket. He watched the flower fall gently on the ground before picking it up again and looking at his communicator in his other hand. 

_GrizzlyPlays fell from a high place_

_GrizzlyPlays mothefucks get to molympus like rn i’m calling a meeting for this shit_

Charlie laughed and pocketed the flower. He was taking a detour apparently. He swiftly turned around and headed towards the direction of their palace in the sky. 

Despite the message calling for Charlie to get there immediately, he still just strolled along the path as usual. He wondered what his friends were doing at the moment. They usually tried to gain progress together, but sometimes they went off on their own missions and such to experience the world without Charlie’s dumb puns and Grizzly's snickering about whatever the fuck he messed with in the overworld this time. 

Condi was possibly searching for diamonds in the mine, or maybe he was searching for lava pools. He was very excited to show off whatever he’d done in the Nether, so he was the only one really trying to make extreme progress. It wasn’t like they had a time limit or anything.

Charlie stumbled over a rock in the path, and while glaring at the stone he punted it. It didn’t go far and it only hurt his foot. Karma, he supposed.

Bizly--well. Who knew what went on in Bizly’s head? The man was chaotic. A newer God, and he’d only become one because of Charlie’s insistence. He was in good graces because of the infamous battle between him and Schlatt, although he’d tried to make them see that Condi and Grizzly were just as much of a help as he was. 

It didn’t matter. What did matter was the fact Bizly decided to create hostile chickens and he saw no problems with it. Now the clucking of a chicken was in short, one of the most terrifying things to hear late at night. 

Charlie could see the village of the infamous “sonk ponkle” in the distance now, which meant he was close to the throne room. He ran so that he’d get to the village quickly, and once he approached some random villager’s home, he pulled out the tulip from earlier and planted it in the ground. No time like the present to make a new home for a plant, despite the ringing “ _get to molympus like rn_ ” in his head. Oh well, Grizzly could wait.

Speaking of Grizzly, what did he do this time? What did he need to call a _meeting_ about this time, specifically? He seemed to be doing that a little more often now. Calling meetings and taking upheaval with whatever stupid rule the gods had made. Their job was to create the hardest server to live in, that was the point. Sometimes Charlie thought he forgot that, but then he remembered how completely unseriously Charlie and Griz took the meetings. 

He nodded at the passing villagers, and went to a corner to shift into his Godly form to be able to fly to molympus without falling through the clouds or burn his retinas when looking at Condi, Griz, and Bizly when they were also in their forms as well.

He flew up to molympus. He thought the oak door being the entrance was quite funny for a quote-unquote god’s headquarters, despite others making fun of it. The door was fine as it was, thank you very much, and it made him grin upon seeing it. Shame on those who thought it was informal.

He opened the oak door and stepped into monolympus with a smile. He was home. But, Instead of the usual cool breeze and smiling faces of Griz and Condi (or Bizly’s who was in most cases, twisted with a frown. He claimed it was his small throne.), he saw the scene glitch. And then he recognized the telltale signs of his wandering mind. The way he didn’t quite fit in with his surroundings, the way everything seemed to slow until he interacted with it. He wiped the vision from his mind, ignoring what it possibly could have meant, and--

The warmth of the prison greeted him instead, gas mask and creeper DNA entering his vision, no smiling faces in sight. The vision was gone, he was back to real life. The real life he needed to save.

Fuck Dream. He just hoped the man didn’t know as much as Charlie thought he did.

~*~

Sam wondered if Charlie was even coming, until the man stumbled into the prison honestly looking pretty confused. So he was going to need to actually get ready. Fine.

Sam wasn’t really sure what to expect from Dream and Slimecicle’s interaction. Sure, Slime had been around long enough to know who Dream is. I mean, the guy whitelisted him somehow, but it was a pretty separate thing to visit him in prison. Of all of the times to visit him too. Dream had just been complaining about not having any visitors. Sam had reminded him of Tubbo’s visit. Dream had complained about it. Of course, he had. Dream was a bitch, and Sam really had to force himself to not just cut off the man’s food supply. He was _this close_ to just feeding him one potato a week, but then he remembered that it was inhumane. Sam doubted Dream was human anyway, so the thought barely deterred him from the impulses.

Slime had barely flinched at the safety procedures Sam made him go through. It freaked Sam out a little, to be honest. People always despised that part of the prison. Slime just accepted it. It wasn’t really, let’s just say “in character”, of him. To be honest, he didn’t even think the guy could read, but the contracts were signed and Slimecicle could recite what they said in full. Sam started forcing visitors to do that now, after what happened with Tommy. Not that he expected the same situation to happen again, especially after all of the precautions he had taken, but it calmed his nerves either way.

He sat in his security room, staring through the one camera feed that was focused in the cell. Sliding on the headphones that fed him the audio, he was surprised to notice they were already talking. 

“..So, what?” Slime was saying. On the video feed, he was just standing, staring at Dream, who was doing the same thing.

“Yeah, he can hear us right now,” Dream said. He looked directly at the camera, smiley face mask obscuring whatever face he had made at Sam. Slime followed where he was looking. “And see us,” he waved, “Hey Sam.”

“Hey Sam,” Slimecicle repeated, also looking at the camera. “Well, no offense dude but I don’t care much for the fact he’s listening in.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,“ He looks away for a second. “Well, we could technically smash-”

“He’d only rush in and fix it. He thinks about this stuff.” Dream says, tapping his temple. “Well, to be fair, _I_ thought about this stuff. He just wants to make sure we aren’t threatening each other or whatever.”

“Pfft,” Slime says and laughs. “I could kill you before he gets down here. Literally.” He snaps his fingers, and it must have been a glitch of the camera or something because Sam swears he sees a spark between his fingers. “But I wouldn’t. I’m not an idiot.” 

This is a very stark contrast to the man’s usually bubbly act. Sam knew something was up with the guy. Something was off with him since day one. He just wasn’t sure where the sudden “I could kill you whenever I wanted” mindset came from.

Dream says something that’s not picked up by the microphones in the camera. Sam wonders what he could’ve said to make Charlie bristle so much.

“Fucker,” Slime says with so much bite Sam almost flinches back from the way he spoke it with such weight and rage. What the fuck did Dream say? “So you know why I’m here then?”

“‘Course I do,” Dream shrugs. “Just because I’m in prison doesn’t mean I’m not still the admin.”

“The only trait you share with XD up there,” Slime jabs his finger at the sky, “Is your name,” He pushes Dream a bit. “Don’t act like you know him.”

Dream points to the camera again. “Don’t forget about our friend up there.”

“What? Just because I pushed-oh.” Recognition dawns on Slime’s face. Sam isn’t sure what he could’ve picked up in the conversation that makes Slime calm down a bit, but at least he won’t have to treat Dream’s wounds after this. That’s his least favorite part of the job, having to care for the man who killed a child and manipulated a server. Slime runs a shaky hand through his hair, “So, are you going to say anything about it?”

Dream laughs—no, he cackles. “Say anything? Say anything?”

Slime seems genuinely concerned in that moment, his facade breaking. His eyebrows turn up, and the man takes a minor step back. What does Dream know? What could possibly create this sort of reaction? Sam desperately craves the context.

“No, I won’t say anything,” Slime sighs, but Dream continues, “For now. For now, I have some things that-“ The audio crackles and pops, and the video feed shuts off.

“What the fuck?” Sam asks. 

He never noticed the sparks dancing across Charlie’s finger pads, or the last frame where Charlie stared at the cameras which caused the feed to glitch and repeat scenes from earlier. No, he was too distracted by the fury in Charlie’s eyes, something he’d never quite seen before.

~*~

The platform and Sam couldn’t have come faster, and Charlie desperately rushed into it, completely ignoring the triumph in Dream’s stance. 

Fucking Dream. 

He couldn’t have been serious, could he? He was trapped in that prison. He couldn’t do anything, which meant Charlie didn’t have to do anything either, right? Right? That’s why he was in the prison in the first place.

He went through the procedure of getting out of the prison without acknowledging what just happened. If he ignored it, it didn’t happen. That was his motto, and he was gonna live by it. 

He took his things out of the locker and realized how Sam’s fingers twitched, the way his eyebrows were quirked. He was looking for an explanation.

Charlie had fried the video feed, right? Hopefully, it corrupted the audio file too. He decided to tread lightly. “Sorry about the, uh, camera.” He puts on his diamond armor. His netherite was back at home, only gathering dust. He hated the way the heat radiated off of the armor set. “I can get you a new one or something.”

Sam put his hands on his hips. “Well, that wasn’t your fault.” He paused for a second. “Unless?”

“No,” Charlie said. He was gonna play dumb until his last breath. It was something he was good at. He laughed, “God, no. If I could’ve done that, I would’ve done it earlier.” And he really would’ve. Charlie despised the fact he could see and hear everything, but he knew that if he got rid of the camera early he’d only have about a minute before Sam would retrieve him.

“Mhm,” Sam only hummed in response. “Yeah, well, I’m going to stop you before you just leave.”

Charlie paused. Here it was. Somehow, only the camera got fried and Sam could hear the rest of the conversation. The threats, the _tasks_. His life was going to be ruined. As if it wasn’t already. He never should’ve come to this server in the first place.

“What the fuck was the context between you two?” Sam asked. Not much of a better question than he had been expecting, but Charlie breathed a sigh of relief nonetheless. Charlie was great at bullshitting things, no matter how much it seemed painfully obvious he was lying. He could spin a tale so large you forgot the original question and you just wanted him to stop talking at that point.

“The context?” Charlie scratched his chin. Yeah, Sam definitely would not believe his excuse whatsoever, but it was going to have to work. Charlie wasn’t here to mess around. “Yeah, motherfucker knew some shit I planned to take to my grave.” He laughed awkwardly. He was never going to end up in a grave, unless he was buried alive. He didn’t like the fact it was quite possible he could end up like that now. Before it had only seemed like an irrational fear, but now--he had some concerns, to say the least. “I literally have no clue how he knew.” This bullshit excuse was starting to seem more like the truth the longer he talked. Maybe it actually was believable.

“What was it?”

“Dude you don’t just ask what someone’s deepest darkest secret is,” Charlie jokes, and nudges Sam with his elbow. “But I’ll let you in on it, just this once. He knew about my childhood. A stupid fight with one of my friends, I nicked his nose, he punched my stomach. I got kicked out of the school. I just heard some rumors he knew something about me, I assumed it was that, and it was.” Charlie had completely thrown out the believability factor with that story. He had made it up entirely. To be honest, he couldn’t really remember his teenage years. Couldn’t even remember how old he was, at this point.

“Really?” Sam gave him a ‘you really think i’m going to believe that?’ face, which was basically a ‘that excuse was so dumb i think a kindergartener could’ve come up with something more original’ face. So Sam didn’t believe him. Yeah, that made sense. “That was what got you so worked up?”

“Embarrassing time, what can I say? Getting kicked out of highschool over a fight that I didn’t even win? Embarrassing shit, dude.”

“Sure,” Sam said, and let him pass. “Anyways, when you want to tell me the truth, just stop by. Dream’s stuck in that prison, he couldn’t do anything if he had strength three and a netherite sword.”

“It was the truth!” Charlie protested. It didn’t really matter, Sam wasn’t going to be able to guess what Dream had really said no matter how hard he racked his brain for it. Nobody suspected the newbie of the server to be a God. 

Charlie just had to find out how Dream knew in the first place.

~*~

Dream had trained himself in spotting the signs of a God after reading all of the volumes, plus spin-offs with additional knowledge about the limited facts they knew about the Gods already out there. The volumes were hard to find, he had to go search for a stronghold and found them in the libraries, along with finding the books in abandoned shipwrecks and jungle temples. So color him surprised when he spotted one seemingly switching from just one server to the next. 

Dream invited him to the server a couple of days before his showdown with Tubbo and Tommy. The invite wouldn’t make its way to him for a couple of days, but that was fine. By the time he got to the server Dream would be there to greet him and Tubbo would be dead with Tommy in prison.

The backup would not be needed, but it would be good to have nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how'd that plan turn out, huh dream?
> 
> Anyways I spent awhile stewing over this chapter and what I wanted to happen. I hope it makes sense and that the interaction with dream and charlie didn't seem super rushed or anything. 
> 
> also, just to reiterate, this chapteeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr dude it kicked my fucking ass i just had to power through it. please tell me if the little dream snippets make sense I'm trying to make them work without making them too weird
> 
> I'm pretty sure I don't need to say this, but kudos and *especially* comments are heavily appreciated around here!


	4. 4.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo gather to theorize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my shorter chapters. I don't have much to add, except for the fact that the cameras and audio being broken in the prison is very important for the next chapter.
> 
> Also, Grammarly is having a fit with all of their names. I would laugh if I didn't have to click ignore every time I wrote "Tubbo" or "Ranboo", and a red underline appeared underneath them. My entire document is just. red. lines. I suffer for content, unfortunately.

Tubbo was somewhat nervous to introduce his idea (plan) to Tommy and Ranboo, so he decided to just bite the bullet and go for it. _Ranboo and Tommy were both there at the same time, so it was the perfect moment_ , he tried reasoning with himself.

“So, I know how we have this entire plan to kill Dream,” Tubbo started, and Tommy glanced over to him from whatever tool he was sharpening against the table.Tubbo gulped, to be honest, it was kind of a threatening sight. “B-but-”

“You’re not suggesting we stop, are you?” Ranboo questioned. He didn’t seem particularly put off by it, but Tubbo was quick to clarify.

“No! No, no I’m not saying that at all,” Tubbo shook his head, “I just think maybe we could focus on this, uh, other thing I had planned. It doesn’t seem like we’d be able to kill him so soon anyways.”

Tommy sat his tool down on the table (it had been a knife), and walked over to Tubbo, who was sitting down on the couch. “So you’re saying we shouldn’t try at all?”

“No!” Tubbo said, and his hands flew out from his sides. “Just listen, ok? I promise it’s not horrible.”

“I’m listening,” Ranboo said. Tommy rolled his eyes but nodded too.

“So, I was thinking--well, first,” Tubbo tripped over his words, caught up in the plan that had been stewing in his head for the past two days (ever since his visit with Dream), “I’ve told you about my conversation with Dream, yeah?”

“Yes?” Ranboo asked. It was phrased as a question and Tubbo presumed it was because he didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“What if we try to find out who they are?” Tubbo asked.

“Weren’t you already trying to do that?” Tommy tilted his head.

“Well, yeah,” Tubbo shamefully admitted. He had spent a little more time than he’d like to admit going over what they could do if they had them on their side. “But it’s different this time. Combined brainpower,” He tapped the side of his skull. “Don’t tell me you aren’t interested.”

“I mean, is this really more important than trying to kill Dream?” Ranboo asked. “He’s a lot more dangerous with the revive book than whoever the god is. I mean, if they wanted to do something dangerous, they would’ve. Right?”

“We could do both at the same time,” Tubbo adds, “If we found out who the god is, well, they could kill Dream for us! It would be foolproof.”

“I don’t know, big man,” Tommy said. He turned a sheepish look to his knife, “I’m scared Dream’ll bring Wilbur back.”

“Please!” Tubbo got out his puppy dog eyes, “It’ll help us in the long run. I promise.”

“I’ll do it,” Ranboo says, “As long as we aren’t completely abandoning the Dream plan.”

“I never said we would,” Tubbo says, but he’s happy. At least one person is on board. He turned his eyes to Tommy, who seems to be thinking about it a little too hard.

Finally, after a minute or two, Tommy throws his hands up. “Argh!” He drags a hand down his face, “Fine, fine. Let’s do it.”

Tubbo punches the air, “Yes! Okay, I promise I won’t get tunnel vision again like I have before. You won’t regret this.”

Cut to an hour later where Tubbo had pulled out three journals for all of them to “theorize” in, and all three of them were placed around the living room brainstorming ideas. 

“I think we should go down the list of people on the server and then just cross them off based on whether or not they’d be a good fit,” Tubbo says. He’s laying on his stomach, legs crossed on the floor. Tommy had kicked him off the couch. In his words, if he was going to be roped into Tubbo’s conspiracies, he should at least be comfortable

“That seems smart except we don’t even know if we know them,” Ranboo points out.

“Ranboob has a point,” Tommy ignores the pointed look Ranboo throws at him. “But, I also feel like we would know if some rando joined with some sketchy ass background who knows a little too much about whatever’s going on here, or has some sort of odd powers.”

“I’m not sure they’d stick out though. Gods must have disguises, right?,” Ranboo doesn’t look up from the book he’s writing in. Tommy only sticks his tongue out in response, so, unfortunately (not really), Ranboo doesn’t see it. “Anyways, maybe we should learn more about what makes someone a God. That makes more sense, I think?”

“Is that for our sake, or Dream’s?” Tubbo asks.

“Good point,” Tommy scratches his wrist, “Maybe we should base our assumptions off of the green bastard, yeah? I mean, he was the one who brought it up in the first place. He considers himself a God. So maybe we should just be looking for someone who’s extremely powerful.”

Tubbo pouts, “That defeats the entire point then!” And throws up his hands in defeat. “I am literally this close to sneaking into the prison to just ask Dream what the fuck he was talking about, but we all know how that would go.”

“That, and Sam would kick your butt,” Ranboo adds.

“Who’s butt am I kicking?” Sam enters into their messy space, making everyone jump, and in Tommy’s case-

Tommy throws the journal Tubbo had given him at Sam, nailing him in the forehead. “Fuck, Sam! You scared me!”

Sam rubs his head, and gives the book back to Tommy, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tommy waves him away, “Just knock next time. I have a door for a reason, man.”

“What are you doing here?” Ranboo asks, interjecting them.

“Just wanted to check up on Tommy,” Sam shrugs, and Tommy rolls his eyes, “I didn’t expect you all to be here.”

“It’s called bonding, big man,” Tommy says, “B-o-n-d-i-n-g. Not sure if you know what it means. It means indulging your friends' theories, even when they’re very much not likely.”

“That is just not true, like at all,” Ranboo says.

“What do you know about it, Ran- _boob_?”

“I’m not going to answer that.”

“Ignoring the name-calling,” Sam says (while coincidentally also ignoring Tommy's squawk of protest at the 'name calling'), “I would’ve told you I was coming over, but I was caught up at the prison.”

“What happened?” Tubbo asks.

“I’m not supposed to tell you who visited, but I’m going to make an exception here,” Sam crosses the room to sit on the couch Tommy was on, despite the flash of uncomfort that appeared on his face, “ _Slimecicle_ visited Dream for some reason. Don’t ask why, it was completely out of left field and the answer he gave for wanting to visit the prisoner was shit. Anyways, he visits, and even though it probably isn’t his fault, I’m going to blame him nonetheless. The camera and audio file got corrupted halfway through his visit, which made them shut down.”

“So you couldn’t hear what they said?” Tommy asks.

“No, I could,” Sam says, “It was only after Dream started talking about something else that the cameras malfunctioned, but still. It’s going to be a pain to repair them. Along with the audio. I’d have to go into Dream’s specific cell to fix it.”

“That sucks,” Ranboo says. 

“I wonder why Charlie was visiting,” Tubbo ponders, “Why could he have wanted to see Dream?”

“Don’t ask me,” Sam says, “The man was pretty scared afterward though. I don’t know what he could have said to make him so--what’s the word? Shuddery.”

“Dream’s a terrifying individual, Sammy,” Tommy says, “It’s quite practical to be wary of the man.”

Hours later, when the day was coming to an end, Tubbo finally made his way to Snowchester. Everything seemed to be normal, not that he’d expect anything less. Although he did start to get more paranoid when leaving Snowchester unattended for so long. Having nukes can do that to you, apparently. 

When he approached his house he saw Charlie running by with a bundle of books in his arms. One slipped out, but he didn’t notice. He just continued until he got in his house and slammed the door shut, making the house rattle.

Tubbo went up to pick up the book. _Potion Making for Beginners_ , the title read. It made him wonder what kind of potions Charlie needed to be in such a rush, and what the other books could’ve possibly been.

~*~

Interesting the way January 20th turned out. The imprisoner turned prisoner. Dream could laugh at the irony, but he was currently staring at the wall of lava separating him from his goals.

He’d have to figure out what to do now. 

Not that it would make a difference. Dream, if nothing else, was always a bit of a schemer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmmm i wonder what dream is making charlie do now? perhaps they'll meet again to discuss dream's shittiness :)
> 
> Anyways, 71 kudos!! Ahhhh, thank you so much! It was stuck at 69 for a while and I was ready to celebrate at that, but 71 is just as good, if not better. If I ever get to 100 kudos I want to do something special, like a requests chapter. Obviously not plot-centric, but if we get there I'd like to know what you want to happen as either a fluffy or angst-filled one-shot that happens in the world! I'm open to anything. I know it's kind of far off, but I want to express my gratitude for all of you awesome people who are sticking with my slowly-progressing charlie fic!
> 
> Also, my 9 key broke off of my keyboard. It's just the button left now. Rest in piece 9, you will be missed.


	5. 5.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie repairs the cameras at the prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spent a little too long writing scenes that won't be happening for a while instead of writing the actual chapter so i'm sorry you had to wait lol. my document is 16k words and only half of it is stuff that's been published. it's like how the story i'm writing for school is shorter than this fanfic which only reminds me how i started this as a joke.
> 
> so anyways procrastination + considerably longer chapter = longer waiting time. i wouldn't ever abandon the fic without warning so don't worry!
> 
> also!! 93 kudos!!! ahhh!!! i guess i might be doing that oneshot sooner than later then??
> 
> anyways, enjoy the chapter i struggled just a bit too much with

Charlie deposited all of his books on his work table, covering whatever he was working on before. For the moment, this was kind of the most important thing. He glanced between the covers and suddenly realized how many of them weren’t even for him. He pushed his palms into his eyes and groaned. This was going to be such a long night for him, he just knew it. Stealing another glance at the clock, he wondered if he could just sleep the night away and think about this more. _I mean, really_ , he chastised himself, _what could Dream even do from inside the prison?_

He opened a random book and started skimming it. Ugh, redstone. That wasn’t really his forte, but it was important to know if he were to do what Dream asked of him.

He took off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt. This was the most inner battle he’d had since the whole Schlatt business, and then after that it was Grizzly… it had been awhile. He grabbed an empty journal on the top shelf and tore a page out of it, setting it on top of all of the other books. It might be an absolute pain to write on, but it was better than shoving them off of his desk and then having to clean them up later.

He wrote pros on one side, drew a line down the middle, and wrote cons on the other. And then he completely burst out laughing. Was he really doing a pros and cons list? _Seriously?_

Charlie took this as a sign he needed to go to bed. He had already spent the past night tossing and turning over whatever Dream knew, and if today’s events were anything to show for it, he’d be repeating the scene once again. Insomnia, his old friend. How much he hadn’t missed it.

He threw away the piece of paper, neither side having any points. Maybe it should stay that way. He went to go and collect his sleeping clothes (or pajamas, whatever floats your boat), when a sudden knocking distracted him from it.

Charlie walked over to the door and hesitated before opening it. It was stupid, really. He was getting paranoid. 

Tubbo was on the other side of the door, holding a book close to his chest. He jumped when Charlie opened the door, almost dropping the book. “What, surprised to see me answer?”

Tubbo laughed, “No, no, not that. I was lost in my thoughts. Zoning out a bit.”

“Uh-huh,” Charlie nodded. He tapped his foot when Tubbo didn’t say anything else, “So, do you want to come in? It’s kind of a mess though, I’m warning you.”

Tubbo shook his head, “I’m good. I just came to drop this off,” Tubbo offered Charlie the book. _Potion Making for Beginners_ , it read. Oh, one of the books he’d grabbed from earlier. “You ran past me a couple minutes ago and didn’t notice it when it fell from your stack-thing.”

Charlie took the book, “Thanks. I didn’t even realize I dropped it.”

“Sure,” Tubbo said, but didn’t move from his place at the door. If Charlie didn’t know any better, he’d think that Tubbo was stalling. That he did not only come to just drop off a book. 

He didn’t want to have a meaningless conversation though, and it seemed like the transaction was over, so he decided to just end it here, “So… I’ll see you around?”

Tubbo nodded absentmindedly, “Yeah, I guess so.” He turned and walked from his hobbit entrance, “I’ll see you around, Charlie.”

“Sure,” Charlie responded, even though Tubbo was too far away to hear him at this point.

He placed the book on top of all of the others and decided to worry about it later. Yeah, maybe some sleep _would_ do him some good. He put on flannel pants and a t-shirt, then brushed his teeth. Anxious thoughts were pushed away, and Charlie collapsed in his bed.

To be honest, he didn’t actually think that he’d sleep that night. Too many thoughts and what-ifs were crammed inside of his head for him to sleep peacefully, but peacefully he slept. He was quite happy about it when he woke up.

Unfortunately, instead of waking up to birds chirping or rain pounding on the ground above him, he awoke to knocking. What was it with the knocking? Charlie hadn’t felt so popular since he became a legend on some of his previous servers. The attention always made him feel special.

He groaned and looked at the clock. It wasn’t even that late! So he decided, fuck it, and barely put any effort in his outfit and only barely touched his hair. And by barely, he meant didn’t touch it. His “Yeah, I’m a gamer,” t-shirt was only somewhat crumpled. It was fine.

When he opened his door, the cold wind hit him at full blast. The comforter of his bed was just too comfortable, it seemed, and it lulled him into a false sense of not living in the tundra snow biome thing that he did live in. Then, he noticed the creeper hybrid standing in his doorway. His eyes roamed over Charlie’s appearance, and Charlie felt extremely bare compared to him. “Did I wake you up?”

He shrugged, “Uh, kind of.”

“It’s 8 AM,” Sam said. “Super late. What time do you usually get up?”

“ _Nine_ of your business,” Charlie joked. The pun went completely unnoticed by Sam. “Oh come on, that was good.”

“ _Anyways_ , I need you to pay for those cameras you broke. And the audio system.”

“I didn’t break them dude!” Charlie defended. “I didn’t have anything to do with them breaking.”

“You were in the general area of the cameras when they broke.” Sam tried. “I’m only blaming you because they were expensive and I refuse to admit they had any flaws.”

“Douche vibes,” Charlie said, and then he remembered the whole Dream situation. If he could get into the prison and check with Dream about whatever so-called power he had over Charlie, his worries could be disproven, and Dream could be shown to be a dirty liar (not that anyone really needed convincing of that last part). “I can fix the cameras for you instead of paying for them, you know.”

“You seriously think I’m letting you in there again after you broke them in the first place?”

“That was not my fault,” Charlie pointed out, _again_ , even if it technically was. Not that Sam knew that, yet somehow he got it in his head he _did_ cause it. “Anyways, I won’t cause any trouble. I won’t break Dream out while you aren’t watching, not that I could. Plus, I’m pretty good at fixing stuff.”

“Mmm, sure, whatever,” Sam rolls his eyes, “But it doesn’t matter. Even if I wanted to let you near my cameras again, I need to keep an eye on you guys. Even if you’re pretty harmless in general, I need to make sure you aren’t going to kill each other while I’m not looking.”

Ignoring the subtle dig at Charlie’s strength, he felt his hope die out a little bit. He was very much hoping he could go in and have a conversation with him without Sam knowing about… well, in short, Charlie didn’t want him knowing about things he didn’t have a reason to know about. Which is why it would be the perfect time to discuss specifics.

“Okay, but—and hear me out—what if I repair the cameras for you?” Charlie quickly added, “Free of charge. I break it, I fix it. Yeah?”

Sam crosses his arms. “You’re not going in.”

“Sam, my dude, my buddy, come _on_ ,” Charlie was practically begging, and begging for something he severely wanted to avoid. Dream gave him the creeps, but his life as he knew it was literally on the line, well his and others, and he really did not want Dream to ruin it.

Sam glared for a solid ten seconds which made Charlie _very_ uncomfortable, “Fine. I’ll need to add a bit of red stone for you to call for me though, which will take most of the day. Drop by when the sun sets.”

“I can do that,” Charlie says. Now he just needed a way to fill the time.

“A way” to fill the time was fishing, apparently, since he was too stressed to really do anything else. Maybe he wouldn’t need to use the books after all! Maybe he could go back to living without the threat of blackmail over his head. Seriously, Dream was trapped. The only person he had access to was Sam, and any other people who were willing to visit him. That’s it. That’s _it_.

The sunset came quicker than expected. He had gotten very absorbed with his fishing. 31 cod, 3 salmon, a _mending_ book. A very good fishing day indeed. He dropped them off in the barrel outside of his house, and went over to the prison.

Sam seemed very hesitant to let him through the prison, which Charlie found reasonable. He asked Charlie almost 4 times if he was sure about it. That was even more times than when Sam asked how he was going to fix the cameras without any tools.

Going through all of the redstone was honestly kind of appalling, but nothing he wasn’t used to after being through all of the servers he’d been on. Those were completely different rabbit holes.

This time, riding across the path was easy. He barely even tripped. Charlie decided focusing on these details was better than focusing on the man in front of him. He stepped off the platform and finally looked Dream straight.

“You’re back,” Dream noted.

“I’m just here to fix the cameras,” Charlie said, but didn’t move from his place. The camera in the corner was still charred, and to be honest, Charlie didn’t know much about fixing them. He’d have to rely on his powers for the most part.

“Ah yes, the cameras,” Dream said. “The ones you broke in a blind rage. For someone who claims to be different now--”

“I’m here to fix the cameras,” Charlie repeated. He wasn’t letting Dream get into his head this time.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Dream took a step back, “Come on in then.” 

Charlie nodded and entered the room. The lava dropped behind him. He was trapped, for now.

Dream sat on the floor, “Pull that lever if you need Sam. He made me put it there. I guess he can’t stand to look at me after Tommy, huh?” He pointed to the only lever in the room, and Charlie tried to ignore the comments. Suddenly interacting with Dream again made him remember why he was in the prison in the first place, and Charlie itched to just call for Sam to get him out.

“Listen man, I just want to live here like a normal guy,” Charlie hesitated, “Which means that you can’t talk about them like that.”

“You think you can just—live life normally?” Dream throws his head back, and _laughs_. Cackles, really. It’s such an eerie sight.

Charlie stumbles back a little, he’s not really sure why. He’s a _God_ for pete’s sake. But still, somehow this green bitch still has some sort of control over him. “Yeah, I think I can.” Charlie says and crosses his arms, somewhat in a form of defense, and somewhat in a form of trying to make himself look a little less weak. 

Dream laughs again. “You-“ He restarts since his sentence keeps getting interrupted with chuckles, “You can’t just _live_ like you're not— _you_ —it’s, it’s embarrassing, you’re embarrassing the real gods by just living normally. You can’t fix your mistakes by doing _nothing_. Just hanging with the mortals as if you didn’t ruin people’s lives-“

“I didn’t ruin anybody’s life. Grizzly—he, he didn’t—“ Charlie was this close to punching Dream. _This_ close. “Jschlatt was the villain.”

“You were the one to exile Grizzly from Monolympus. Jschlatt had been banished since then. Moved on to bigger, better things.” His mask barely conceals the smirk on his face. “Like dying on this server. I wonder if Tommy ever got to talk to the guy in the afterlife. You know, get out some of his feelings with him. Like couples therapy.”

“Keep Tommy out of this. He’s a kid.”

Dream shrugs, “Whatever you say, boss. Now how’re my tasks going?”

Charlie freezes. There was no way he was doing any of the things he asked of him. All Charlie had wanted when he came to this server was to just move on from his spotty history, to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. 

_To protect Condi, Grizzly, and Bizly. ___

__He shook away the thoughts. They hated him. They didn’t _need_ him, or his protection. “I’m not doing them.”_ _

__“Oh?” Dream asks. He leans over to the lever that called for Sam. “You’re not?”_ _

__“You wouldn’t.” Charlie grits his teeth. There’s no way. “He wouldn’t believe you.”_ _

__“But if he did?” Dream asks again, fingers getting too close for comfort to the lever._ _

__“This doesn’t matter. One person knowing won’t change anything. You can’t impact everyone else by only telling Sam,” Charlie tried reasoning with Dream, but mostly with himself. To be honest, he could just wipe the man’s memories, but it was a tedious process, a very precise one. He also didn’t want anyone knowing in the first place._ _

__“You’re telling me that you’d willingly let Sam know about your secret?”_ _

__“That’s not-“_ _

__Dream flicked the lever. Sam’s name tag appeared through the lava pool. Charlie started to sweat._ _

__His eyes flicked around the room dangerously._ _

__“What do you need?” Sam called across the chasm. Charlie froze. “Slimecicle?”_ _

__“No, actually, _I_ have something I need to tell you about him.” Dream smiles and gestures to Charlie._ _

__Charlie breaks. This can’t be the end. “No!” He pushes Dream out of the way and stands in front of him, as if that would change how Sam would hear what he had to say. He spins around and stares at Dream and throws his hands up in defeat. “Fine! Fine!”_ _

__“I want to hear you say it. In full.”_ _

__Charlie sighs and mutters, “I’ll do it. I’ll do them. All of them.”_ _

__He could’ve sworn he saw Dream eye Sam across the lava. “I suppose that works, we don’t want Sam knowing the specifics of the situation, do we?” Sam stares at them, “You’re all good Sam! Charlie here hasn’t finished his camera-fixing yet. You can go back.”_ _

__“Are you sure?” Sam asks. He looks at Charlie for confirmation._ _

__“Yeah, yeah just--just go back,” Charlie says. When Sam leaves, Charlie turns to Dream again, “I was serious. Just because Sam would know doesn’t mean that he could carry out your threats for you.”_ _

__“It’s not just me, Slimecicle,” Dream drawls, “You seriously think that I’m working alone? I have a person on the outside. Soon it will be two, when you start doing the things I asked.”_ _

__“Another person?” Charlie mutters. Who could they be? For all Charlie knew, everyone abandoned Dream in January when he decided threatening two kids was a good use of his time. The only person one his side back then was Ponk he thought, or maybe Purpled? There were way too many people on this server with P names. He racked his brain--Punz! That was the person. But the only reason they were with Dream was because he was paying him... and even then it wasn’t enough in the long run._ _

__“I would let you know of them so you could work together,” Dream stretches his arms, “But I don’t think I want either of you to know about each other’s arrangement.”_ _

__Charlie just stares at Dream until he makes a shooing gesture with his hands, “Aren’t you here to fix the camera?”_ _

__“Yes, that is why I am here.”_ _

__“Then fix it! And the audio system. I think this talk has been good for us, but Sam will be getting worried. Such a worrier, that warden.” Dream situates himself on the ground, the exact spot where he’d be able to watch everything Charlie does._ _

__Charlie fixed the camera, feeling dirty after showing off his power in front of Dream. He felt so bare._ _

__He ignored Sam on the way out, and only then does he realize that he failed his goal of not letting Dream get in his head._ _

__~*~_ _

__“Why do I have to be the one to ask?” Ranboo groaned._ _

__“Because Technoblade won’t kill you on sight,” Tubbo answered._ _

__“He wouldn’t kill you guys on sight either,” Ranboo pointed out. “He’s not like a savage or anything.”_ _

__“Technoblade has lots of swords, Ranboob,” Tommy says, “And a firework launcher. You are the perfect person for the job.”_ _

__“Just because he reads doesn’t mean he has the books we want,” Ranboo says. This was going to be the worst social interaction ever, he could tell. Tommy and Tubbo weren’t budging. Damn them and their unbreakable bond._ _

__“I wouldn’t be reading if I didn’t have to. This is all for Tubbo.”_ _

__“Hey!” Tubbo shoved Tommy a little bit. Ranboo didn’t miss the way Tommy tenses and panics for a couple of seconds. He’d been noticing more little things like that since the entire death thing, along with his blackouts becoming a little more frequent. He didn’t like either of them. “Listen, I’m well aware he might not have them. But it’s worth a shot, right?”_ _

__“You’re not the one bartering for the books in the first place!” Ranboo blurted._ _

__His complaints were ignored though, and he was sent on his merry way to Technoblade’s home in the arctic.  
“‘Technoblade will listen to you’, yeah right,” Ranboo mocked under his breath. He was approaching the house now, he could tell. The snow was more dense as if it had been walked on more, and he was finding more torches placed around albeit a bit randomly._ _

__“What will Technoblade listen to you about?” The piglin hybrid asked, suddenly appearing besides Ranboo._ _

__He let out a very enderman-like warbled cry, “Dude! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”_ _

__Technoblade chuckled, “I couldn’t help but overhear your argument with yourself. My hearing is just too good for thin’s to be private.”_ _

__“Ugh, I know,” Ranboo laughed, “Well, I was sent to retrieve books from you.”_ _

__“Books? You can read?” Technoblade jokes._ _

__“I can, actually. I’ll take that as a compliment. I just subvert everyone’s expectations so hard they forget I can actually do things.”_ _

__“Seems like a Ranboo thing to do,” Techno nudges him a little, “So, why books?”_ _

__“Dream told Tubbo about some God on the server which got him hooked on the idea about them existing.” Ranboo shrugs, “I don’t really think they exist, so I’m mainly doing it for Tubbo’s sake.”_ _

__“He wants to control ‘em?”_ _

__“I don’t really know, but it’s not as harsh as you think.”_ _

__“Mhm,” Techno hummed, “So what do you need the books for?”_ _

__Ranboo thinks about this. It was mostly just to figure out the signs of a God so they could find them themselves, but it was also, “I think he’s hoping the book will just name gods and he’ll be able to figure it out from there.”_ _

__“Basically just skippin’ the entire research part of it, then.”_ _

__“I guess,” Ranboo says, “You wouldn’t happen to have any of those types of books, would you?”_ _

__“Nah, not really. I’m a greek nerd, sure, but it’s all myths and stuff. Nothing entirely factual, and none of it’s in ‘book’ form. It’s knowledge that’s passed mouth-from-mouth.”_ _

__“That sucks,” Ranboo sighs, “Well, I guess it was worth a shot, right? Maybe you should write down your greek knowledge. It would be a good time filler.”_ _

__“That it would, but I’m busy with other things,” Techno concedes. “Wanna stay for a bit? Phil’s makin’ tea.”_ _

__Staying for tea wouldn’t hurt. He could report back to Tommy and Tubbo later. For now, he was going to indulge in some self serving. “Sure,”_ _

__The wind bit his cheeks as he and Techno headed into the cabin._ _

__~*~_ _

__Dream didn’t think the god would bend to his demands immediately. No, that would take some time. He would have to be patient and wait for a time to enforce his threats. Hopefully sooner than later, but he could work with anything._ _

__He just had to sit back and relax at the moment._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm being ominous with what dream wants charlie to do on purpose i promise. it's just for buildup, but i'm sure you guys know what dream wants him to do anyways so how much does it matter??
> 
> anyways who's your favorite pov so far?? would you guys like a technoblade pov? i've read so many fics with his chat in it so if i did do a technoblade chapter i would definitely include them.


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